Former County Primary School

The former County Primary School, now an arts centre, was built in 1895 for the Corsham School Board. It is constructed of coursed rock-faced limestone rubble with freestone dressings, and has a clay tile roof with stone coped gables, kneelers, and stone axial stacks with moulded cornices. The style is Free Jacobean.

The building comprises a single range with an infants' school to the east, containing a classroom, hall, and cloakroom, and a separate boys' school to the west, with three classrooms opening into a hall and a cloakroom. The boys’ and infants' playgrounds are separated by a stone wall, along which are the boys' and infants' lavatories with attached open-sided shelters. The building is single-storey with attics over the cloakrooms.

The asymmetrical gabled elevations feature stone mullion-transom windows. The east-facing infants' school elevation has two gables; to the right, a large stone mullion-transom window, and to the left, a 2-storey gable with small stone mullion windows, and a stone gabled portal at the centre with pilasters, a 3-centred arch, and ball finials. The south elevation features a central gable, a large window breaking the eaves with a twin hipped roof and a gable-ended range on the left. The west-facing boys' school elevation has gables to the left and right, each with a large stone mullion-transom window, and a stone portal to the left of centre with a semicircular gable, ball finials, pilasters, and a 3-centred arch. The long north elevation has a large central gable flanked by two smaller gables, all with large stone mullion-transom windows. Small ventilators with conical caps are set over the ridges, and a wooden bellcote with a tiled spire sits above the centre of the roof.

The interior contains glazed partitions. The boys’ cloakroom is said to retain its original pegs. Included in the listing is the boys’ and infants’ lavatory range and adjoining shelters, connected to the school on the south side by a stone wall separating the two playgrounds. A gabled gateway is set through the wall.